9.29.2010

Do-It-Yourself Deprogramming for Conservatives!

Conservatives! It is surprisingly easy to get rid of your soul-killing fear of and hatred for those you think are not enough like you and, at the same time, stop being a brainwashed tool of the plutocrat fat cats who rule the country with the sole aim of maintaining and increasing their own wealth and power!

Here – absolutely free of charge! – is an easy-to-follow, five-step ladder out of the Fox News Tea Party sludge pit and into the light of being a decent person and good citizen.

You can deprogram yourself very simply by understanding and accepting the following principles (every one of which, by the way, is more in accord with the teachings of Jesus than the anti-Christ gospels of greed and resentment spewed by morally-bankrupt scam-artists like Pat Robertson and Sarah Palin [for some, it might be helpful to ask "What Would Jesus Do?" when considering the steps up the ladder]):

Step 1) HUMAN DECENCY At birth, every human being is equally deserving of respect and equally deserving of a society where they can live a good life.

Step 2) THE GOLDEN RULE Good citizens and decent people live by the following principle of morality and freedom: do unto others as you would have them do unto you, or your children or grandchildren or mother or whoever you care most about in the world. This golden rule necessarily makes the point that morality is social; it's about how you treat other people and the extent to which you consider how your actions will affect other people. (In other words, morality is not a code laying down dos and don'ts for how to be a good person. If you personally want to ALSO live by some code of ethics with strict rules of what you can and cannot do, that's your business, you are free to do that so long as it does not interfere with anyone else. Good citizens and decent people do not try to impose their particular ethical code on anybody else who does not choose to live that way.)

Step 3) DEMOCRACY With golden rule-morality as the starting point, the only acceptable political form is what can be called "true democracy," which is to say that people govern themselves cooperatively – government of the people by the people and for the people, whoever the people happen to be in a particular situation. (Wouldn't you want to participate in any decision that affects you? The golden rule demands we extend that right to all.) Decisions in true democracy are not determined by 51-to-49 votes; they are decided through open, honest, thoughtful discussions aimed at consensus, and if no consensus can be reached, when about 2/3 of the people agree on a course of action, the other third should accept the democratic decision and go along, or else break away.

Step 4) CITIZENSHIP Within the open-honest-thoughtful discussions that make up the political process of true democracy, good citizens and decent people will consider the good of everyone affected by the decision to be made, as called for by the golden rule. If people try to argue for a course of action based on selfish self-interest, good citizens and decent people will recognize and critique such positions as anti-democratic and immoral. (In this way, true democracy adopts the theory of justice proposed by American philosopher John Rawls who asserted that the most just decisions would be made by people who did not know how the decisions would affect them personally.)

Step 5) FREEDOM Live and let live; look kindly on people both generally and specifically; feel free to find ways to be happy and enjoy life any way you can without hurting or infringing on others.

Welcome to the light, citizen! Now let's work together to create a better world!


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